I'm will be retiring from the Air Force within the next few months and am interviewing for a position in the Houston area up by The Woodlands and Conroe.

My first question is do these areas offer good places to fish within a decent proximity. I've seen that Lakes Conroe and Livingston are near, but don't now how the bass fishing is on those lakes. There are a vareity of chocies here in the Shreveport/Bossier area and I've become a little spoiled with all of the options here. Will I be disappointed there?

Second questions is which of these areas would be the best to live in for schools, crime, etc?

Thanks as always!

Cass

Personally, I am not a fan of the Houston area but the Woodlands is a nice area with good school districts I've been told. As far as the fishing Conroe is a great bass fishery and Livingston isn't so bad itself. You would have Rayburn to the north east, Houston County (great bass lake) up by Crockett and Somerville and Fayette to the west. Not a bad area IMO for angling opportunities.

Not bad, schools most pick Woodlands or Montgomery. Conroe has went to [censored] as has spring area.

Thanks for the info fellas.

The Woodlands/Conroe areas have grown Expediently over the last 20 years or so, morning and evening commutes can be taxing however the woodlands is a good place to reside and raise a family and schools are pretty good as well. Skeeter above pretty much covered all the major fishing opportunities, the haul to Rayburn isn't that far and well worth the trip.

I have fished Conroe for 20+ years and all surrounding lakes. I lived on Conroe for 4 years. Conroe is a goood big fish producer but the numbers are less mostly due to the high pressure this lake recieves. I would live in the Woodlands for the schools as they are a well funded mostly high income school with very little crime and very few crime committing groups in the young age brackets. Conroe is not a bad place to be if you are by the lake but as said by someone else Montgomery has good growing schools and is better than Conroe ISD. Also, Conroe has some excellent crappie fishing with many fish in the high 1# to 2# class. Lastly, the commute on the 45 side is getting better as the lanes are being constructed for the new highway and when complete will be 5 lanes wide all the way past Willis and into HOuston.

Retiring. School are probably zero concern.

Conroe is good for size, numbers are tougher. Not the easiest lake to fish.
Fayette can be great for numbers and decent size. Easy to fish.
Livingston shallow fishing, decent nunbers, smaller size.
Rayburn large good all around lake. Fishing tougher the last few years.
Raven decent small lake.

A number of good areas to live. Look around.

Hey Cass I have been fishing Conroe for many years and I live in the Magnolia/Montgomery area.
Both schools are great..Its only 45 minutes max to the Woodlands for me.
I have been fishing tournaments on Conroe since before the KILT Big Bass Tournament started having them on Conroe which is lots of years.1 thing I like about Conroe is the challenge to pattern the fish and consistently catch them which hardly anybody can do not even us that fish the lake quite often.But if you stay after them you will get them eventually.There are some great sticks that fish Conroe and most of them will tell you the fish scatter out and are hard to find sometimes.For me the challenge is why I like to fish Conroe..Hope this gives you a little insight about Conroe.

All great info...thanks y'all!

Screw that rat race on the North Freeway. I think I'd grab a couple of acres in Magnolia if I worked in The Woodlands. Probably wouldn't be any more expensive than a 2500 sq ft spec home crammed into a neighborhood in the Woodlands.

The woodlands is actually in the Conroe school district, the one lake noone has mentioned is lake woodlands, this lake is full of bass, catfish and crappie. There is even a boat ramp, electric motors only on this lake but I have caught a lot of fish there.

Thanks.

Well, I went this weekend to check the place out and was supposed to have an interview on Monday. I didn't even stay for the interview, couldn't get back to Shreveport/Bossier quick enough. Not enough water to fish around there for me and the outskirts of Houston remind me of a few 3rd world countries the military has sent me to. Also waaaaaaaay too many people for a guy that grew up in a town with a population of 12,000.

Thanks again for the info.

I've Been around both a lot.

To say the woodlands is a downgrade to bossier is a bit of a stretch.

Didn't say it was a downgrade, said that there were too many people for me and not enough lakes. However, I'd choose North Bossier over The Woodlands any day.